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Never in memory have so many presidential hopefuls plunged this early before an election year into the money chase to put themselves on the path to the White House. And for whatever reason, all of them are Republicans. The latest to announce an "exploratory committee" is Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, close disciple of a failed GOP presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, and the nearest thing to a clone of the war hawk in the Senate. Although President Obama will not be on the ballot, his foreign policy is certain to be a centerpiece of the 2016 election debate. Mr. Graham would add a strong voice to the Republicans' primary-state debates on the ongoing...

Related "Jules Witcover" Articles

Never in memory have so many presidential hopefuls plunged this early before an election year into the money chase to put themselves on the path to the White House. And for whatever reason, all of them are Republicans.The latest to announce an...

There's something eminently straightforward about President Obama's State of the Union proposal to raise taxes on the richest Americans and boost income for the middle class. Robin Hood had the same idea, and the Republican Party has...

One song President Obama probably isn't singing to himself right now is "The Last Time I Saw Paris."
In failing to put in an appearance at the mass street demonstration against the dark cloud of terrorism that has just visited the City of...

Upon release of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on the George W. Bush administration's use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" on captured al-Qaida suspects, two prominent American figures stoutly defended the practice...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's candid interest in seeking the presidency in 2016 raises skepticism about whether the voters would vote for a third Bush in the Oval Office.
It's based in part on the view, among Democrats anyway, that his father was...

President Obama in Hawaii and Americans elsewhere found an unexpected present under their Christmas trees last week in a surprisingly growing economy, lifting some of the gloom otherwise hovering over the national outlook.
The gross domestic product...

As the uproar died down over the Hollywood comedy that depicted the fictitious assassination of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, another movie came under fire for taking liberties with the truth. The film in question, "Selma,"...

With barely a week to go before another government shutdown could be upon us, the Republican leaders in Congress vow it won't happen this time. They have been huddling over ways to avert it, while other congressional Republicans plot other...

Before President Obama does anything else in the lame-duck Congress or the new one in January, he needs forthrightly to seek an update or new authorization for the new war he's fighting against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Although...

President Barack Obama's firm determination that no more American combat forces will be introduced in the Middle East battlefield may well thwart his intention to "degrade and ultimately destroy" the new threat of the Islamic State in Iraq and...

In his televised speech to the nation Wednesday evening, Barack Obama has a major opportunity to put his wavering presidency back on track by firmly and clearly saying how he intends to deal with the terrorist Islamic State. He must stop...

An early indication of the paucity of prospective Republican presidential candidates for 2016 is the recent boomlet for Mitt Romney, the loser in 2012. His reputation for defending big business while being tone-deaf to the needs of the middle class...

Finally, Jules Witcover has written an unbiased appraisal of President Barack Obama ("Obama's cloudy legacy," Oct. 13)!
Now let's see him write a similar one about Vice President Joe Biden. In a commentary published by The Sun on December 29,...

It's often said and written that presidents, to achieve greatness, require great challenges. Washington had the challenge of creating a new nation; Lincoln had the Civil War; FDR faced the Great Depression and World War II. All clearly qualified by that...

Secret Service agents nursing their wounds from the recent disclosures of incompetence in protecting the president should read Carl Sandburg's account of how one of their forebears failed in his assigned task on the fateful night in April...

Democrats from around the country, and political chroniclers as well, again flocked to Iowa last weekend for retiring Sen. Tom Harkin's annual steak fry, a traditional event for raising cholesterol levels and presidential...

President Obama's yearning to become a peacetime president continues to be frustrated by the reality on the ground in the Middle East, and by Republicans' zeal to capitalize on it politically at home.
The disintegration of Iraq, the...

President Obama's firing of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, transparently dressed up as a resignation under congressional pressure, seemed somehow out of character for a chief executive known for patience and dislike of wielding...

I read with interest Jules Witcover's column about the Democrats' presidential prospects ("If not Hillary, how about Joe?" Aug. 4).
He concluded that Vice President Joe Biden "is a good alternative presidential candidate for the...

The latest open debate over security and privacy is a welcome pivot from the irksome father-knows-best attitude that has prevailed too long regarding the government's contention of superior judgment in the realm of national security.
As with most cases...